power laptop with cheap inverter ?

[Tom]

what are the risks of using a cheap $15-30 inverter to power a lpatop through a cig lighter ?

Is it better to get a laptop dc charger, or is it about the same ?

 

[cheesehead]

About the same. Crappy inverters may cause problems, but so long as you don't exceed the power rating (hint: They're usually rated for double what they can actually produce), you should'nt have any troubles.

 

[shadowofthesun]

Cheap usually doesn't work out, we have a cheap one in the car atm (<20 bucks) and it didn't even power my dell 1100 back when it worked (bless its little blue case), it just couldn't produce enough power. The little light on the adapter would just light up and then dim every few seconds- couldn't even pull off a recharge. Make sure you get one that meets the power requirements of your AC adapter (generally found on the underside of the power brick)

 

[russell2002]

Best way to judge it would be to find out the consumtion of your notebook and make ure sure it is less than the power inverter can supply. Note they measure them in two ways, continuous and peak, the former been the one to judge by.

 

[corkyg]

My minivan has a built in power inverter that accepts normal A/C plugs. I just plug my laptop brick into it - no problem. But, when I travel, I always use my auto-air-brick with adapters. I can then run directly out of the "cigarette" lighter, now called AUX port, and if flying, it connects to the standard IATA power outlet under certain seats.

I find that a better travel investment than a portable inverter - it won't help you on an airline.

 

[kami333]

Originally posted by: corkyg
My minivan has a built in power inverter that accepts normal A/C plugs. I just plug my laptop brick into it - no problem. But, when I travel, I always use my auto-air-brick with adapters. I can then run directly out of the "cigarette" lighter, now called AUX port, and if flying, it connects to the standard IATA power outlet under certain seats.

I find that a better travel investment than a portable inverter - it won't help you on an airline.

I have a little adapter that converts the empower socket to a cigarette socket link, got it at Radio Shack 5 or 6 years ago and works well, I just plug my inverter into it.

 

[imported_AndyT]

I use a Belkin AC Anywhere inverter I bought a few years back. It has a 140w continous and 300w max output. Most latop chargers draw about 90w at the most and the Belkin never wimpers. The 140w Belkin is 64.99 at CompUSA. The nice thing is that you can run most portable devices of AC without and adapter, so you may find more uses for it.

 

[Tom]

Thanks for all the replies. I decided to get this $12.99 one and it seems to work fine.

http://microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0202379